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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Rhenda sez chill out folks

Rhenda Strub, a new city councilmember here in Olympia, writes a pretty good piece on the ithmus issue here in town. Not on what she believes we should do, but on how we all need to take a deep breath:

The hyperbole is objectionable enough, but the anger coming from the people who want to talk about this issue is really astonishing. People who have lived here for much longer than me (6 years) tell me they’ve never seen anything like it.

To tell you the truth, I haven't seen anything like it either. Even the old convention center debate wasn't this divisive. What I think happened is that the social and political groups that formed around the port protest issue have continued and this is their new target. And, of course, there is a reaction to that energy and it keeps on bouncing around.

3 comments:

Matthew Green
said...

First, I wrote a long response to Rhenda at Olyblog. In short, I strongly disagree with her.

Second, I don't think the opposition is the port protest groups. Instead, I think it is a combinations of pro-view groups, "keep Olympia as a small town" groups, anti-developer groups, pro-homeless groups (linked to the council's seeming agenda against the homeless), pro-working class groups (as opposed to people who can afford $1M condos), and counter-ODA downtown groups.

Indeed, I think the range and diversity of groups is what gives strenth to the opposition.

Do you make any effort whatsoever to gather facts before you make statements, or do you just type whatever pops into your head? Because the leaders of the opponents to the rezone, people like Bonnie Jacobs, Bob Jacobs, Thad Curtz, Barbara Gooding, etc., were certainly not participants in the Port protests. There's very little overlap between resistance to the "rezone for sale" of the isthmus, and Oly PMR. It just astonishes me that you would write something so ridiculous, that has no basis in fact. So much for citizen journalism.